decoder for .ram file

Question

I have a .ram file which I would very much like to open and I have already installed Parole 0.2.0.6 on this behalf.

If I open the file with Parole now it tells me that an "text/uri-list-decoder" is still missing and needs to be installed.

Where do I get this decoder and how do I install it? Or is there any other mediaplayer which can cope better? System is Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Answer 1

I think the best thing to do is to use mplayer or smplayer (assuming you have the restricted extras installed as Damien mentioned.)

You can use mplayer direct from the terminal, but for it to work you must use the -playlist option so it knows to check the local .ram file for the url and connect to it.

mplayer -playlist /location/of/ram.file

Then the cache will fill (it takes a few moments) and the output will be:

AO: [pulse] 16000Hz 1ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A:  28.6 (28.5) of 1550.0 (25:50.0)  0.3% 19% 

If you want to use a gui, smplayer would be the best option. Just load it up and open the .ram file and it will play automatically without any problems in the current version as in the screenshot below.

Answer 2

.ram files are small text files containing a link to a audio stream. When clicked a web browser downloads the .ram and launches the user's media player.The player reads the files and the stream starts playing.

.ram files are part of the Realaudio proprietary audio format.

You can install RealPlayer, however, RealPlayer has been criticized in the past for containing adware and spyware and also has premium versions .

An alternative may be mplayer as it should play real player codecs.

which brings us to SMPlayer which is a complete front-end for MPlayer and should play your .ram

Before installing SMplayer be sure to have ubuntu-restricted-extras activated